Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

A resource and context model for mobile middleware

  • Original Article
  • Published:
Personal and Ubiquitous Computing Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Mobile computing systems should be self-managed to simplify operation and maintenance plus meet user’s expectation with respect to Quality of Service (QoS). When architecting self-managed mobile computing systems, one must take a holistic view on both QoS management and the entities in the mobile environment. This paper presents a novel model that includes both resources and context elements. To illustrate the usefulness of the model, it is applied to a video streaming application by: (1) modelling context elements and resources in the environment, (2) specifying context dependencies and QoS characteristics of the application, and (3) designing weakly integrated resource and context managers. We describe a middleware that uses the developed managers when evaluating context dependencies and predict offered QoS of alternative implementations of the application. In order to select the one that can operate in the current environment and that best satisfies given user preferences.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4
Fig. 5
Fig. 6
Fig. 7
Fig. 8

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. Emmerich W (2002) Distributed component technologies and their software engineering implications. In: Proceedings of the 24th international conference on software engineering. ACM Press, New York, pp 537–546

  2. Davis N, Friday A, Blair GS, Cheverst K (1996) Distributed systems support for adaptive mobile applications. ACM-Baltzer Mobile Net Appl 1(4):399–408

    Google Scholar 

  3. Noble BD, Satynarayanan M, Narayanan D, Tilton JE, Walker KR (1997) Agile application-aware adaptation for mobility. In: Proceedings of the 16th ACM symposium on operating systems principles. ACM Press, New York, pp 276–287

  4. Brewer EA, Katz RH, Chawathe Y, Gribble SD, Hode T, Nguyen G, Stemm M, Henderson T, Amir E, Balakrishnan H, Fox A, Padmanabhan VN, Seshan S (1998) A network architecture for heterogeneous mobile computing. IEEE Pers Commun 5(5):8–24

    Article  Google Scholar 

  5. Grace P, Blair GS, Samuel S (2005) A reflective framework for discovery and interaction in heterogeneous mobile environments. ACM SIGMOBILE Mobile Comput Commun Rev 9(1):2–14

    Article  Google Scholar 

  6. Chan ATS, Chuang S (2003) MobiPADS: a reflective middleware for context-aware mobile computing. IEEE Trans Softw Eng 29(12):1072–1085

    Article  Google Scholar 

  7. The EU project—Madam (2005) Theory of adaptation—specification of the MADAM core architecture and middleware services, sixth framework programme, D2.1

  8. Kephart JO, Chess DE (2003) The vision of autonomic computing. IEEE Comput 36:41–52

    Google Scholar 

  9. Kephart JO (2005) Research challenges of autonomic computing. In: Proceedings of the 27th international conference on software engineering. ACM Press, New York, pp 15–22

  10. Parashar M, Hariri S (2005) Autonomic computing: an overview. International workshop unconventional programming paradigms, Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 3566. Springer, Berlin Heidelberg New York, pp 247–259

  11. Huang G, Liu T, Mei H, Zheng Z, Liu Z, Fan G (2004) Towards autonomic computing middleware via reflection. In: Proceedings of the 28th international computer software and applications conference. IEEE Computer Science, USA, pp 135–140

  12. Solberg A, Amundsen S, Aagedal J, Eliassen F (2004) A Framework for QoS-aware service composition. In: Proceedings of 2nd ACM international conference on service oriented computing

  13. Amundsen S, Lund K, Griwodz C, Halvorsen P (2005) QoS-aware mobile middleware for video streaming. In: Proceedings of the 31st EUROMICRO conference on software engineering and advanced applications. IEEE Computer Society, USA, pp 54–61

  14. Lu S, Bharghavan V (1996) Adaptive resource management algorithms for indoor mobile computing environments. In: Proceedings of the ACM SIGCOMM ‘96 conference on applications, technologies, architectures, and protocols for computer communication. ACM Press, New York, pp 231–242

  15. Capra L (2003) CARISMA: context-aware reflective middleware system for mobile applications. PhD Thesis, University College London, University of London

  16. Lundesgaard S, Eliassen F (2006) Combined resource and context model for QoS-Aware mobile middleware. In: Proceedings of the 19th international conference on architecture of computing systems, Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 3894. Springer, Berlin Heidelberg New York, pp 84–98

  17. Duran-Limon HA, Blair GS (2003) The importance of resource management in engineering distributed objects. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 1999/2001. Springer, Berlin Heidelberg New York, pp 44–60

  18. Object Management Group (2005) UML profile for schedulability, performance, and time specification, v1.1, OMG formal/05-01-02

  19. Watt S, Myrhaug HI, Whitehead N, Yakici M, Bierig R, Nuti SK, Cumming H (2004) An ambient, personalised, and context-sensitive information system for mobile users. In: Proceedings of the 2nd European Union symposium on ambient intelligence. ACM Press, New York, pp 19–24

  20. Hong JI, Landay JA (2004) An architecture for privacy-sensitive ubiquitous computing. In: Proceedings of the 2nd international conference on mobile systems, applications, and services. ACM Press, New York, pp 177–189

  21. Christopoulou E, Goumopolos C, Kameas A (2005) An ontology-based context management and reasoning process for UbiComp applications. In: Proceedings of the joint conference on Smart objects and ambient intelligence. ACM Press, New York, pp 265–270

  22. Lundesgaard S, Lund K, Eliassen F (2006) Utilising alternative application configurations in context and QoS-aware mobile middleware. In: Proceedings of distributed applications and interoperable systems. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 4025. Springer, Berlin Heidelberg New York, pp 228–241

  23. Corradi A, Montanari R, Tibaldi D (2004) Context-based access control for ubiquitous service provisioning. In: Proceedings of the 28th international computer software and applications conference. IEEE Conference Proceedings, pp 444–451

  24. Chen G, Kotz D (2000) A survey of context-aware mobile computing research. Technical report TR2000-381, Darthmouth Computer Science

  25. Object Management Group (2004) UML profile for modelling Quality of Service and Fault tolerant characteristics and mechanisms. OMG adapted specification

  26. da Rocha RCA, Endler M (2006) Context management in heterogeneous, evolving ubiquitous environments. IEEE Distributed Syst 7(4), Online

Download references

Acknowledgments

The video streaming scenario that is used to define (realistic) requirements to a dynamic mobile middleware platform has been developed in collaboration with Associate Professors Pål Halvorsen, and Carsten Griwodz from the Informatics department at the University of Oslo, and Post Doc. Ketil Lund from Simula Research Laboratory.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Simula Research Laboratory, Network and Distributed Systems, P.O. Box 134, 1325, Lysaker, Norway

    Sten L. Amundsen & Frank Eliassen

Authors
  1. Sten L. Amundsen
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Frank Eliassen
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Sten L. Amundsen.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Amundsen, S.L., Eliassen, F. A resource and context model for mobile middleware. Pers Ubiquit Comput 12, 143–153 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00779-006-0105-4

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00779-006-0105-4

Keywords

Search

Navigation